


Navigating

by Arrinconada_en_mi_Esquina



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Day 1: Precanon, Day 3: House is Not a Home, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jounouchi Appreciation Week 2017
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-19
Updated: 2017-09-19
Packaged: 2018-12-31 12:27:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12132492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arrinconada_en_mi_Esquina/pseuds/Arrinconada_en_mi_Esquina
Summary: A visit to the park goes awry, but it doesn't matter...





	Navigating

**Author's Note:**

> I hope it's not too jarring that he's referred to by his first name here. I just figured that made more sense in this scenario.

Howling shouts accompanied by falling cabinets, shattering glass and ceramic, and a muffled distant voice.

Katsuya Jounouchi ran all around the apartment – since when was it so big? – trying to keep things from crashing into the floor. The walls glowed many shades of red and orange with the occasional pink that would blink in and out in-between the harsher fiery colors. It was hard to keep up with everything. It all came falling faster and faster, breaking against the floor, rebuilding itself bigger and more unstable, and then falling again due to the unending earthquakes that made it impossible for him to get to any one spot on time. The angry voices kept fueling each other, though one was always more volatile than the other – always in control.

He made it to the little cabinet that held the trophy he got last year at school for winning a race. It was very crucial that it was safe; if it got damaged, who would remember how he was the best 7-year-old in track? Although he could win that again this year, so maybe it wasn’t too important.

It wasn’t just the trophy, though; the cabinet also held all the homemade pottery he made with Shizuka and Mom, back when Mom still had time to do pottery with them. They had only done one piece without her supervision since then and he got an earful for letting Shizuka play with plaster and paint. But when their mother tried to take the lumpy, green torpedo – it was gonna be a plane; they used a bird-shaped mold and he was gonna polish the wings and details to make a plane, but he screwed up the wings so he opted to turn it into a torpedo which was way cooler anyway – Shizuka cried her little heart out and Mom decided to keep it after all.

Katsuya looked into the cabinet’s little glass doors to make sure everything was okay. Strangely enough, the torpedo was now a perfectly sculptured little submarine and a different, darker shade of green.

_Bi… other…_

Maybe he could ride it? Nah, it was too small.

_B-g.. other…_

It looked as though it was steadily growing, though. Maybe if he took it out, it would have enough space to grow and he could board it with all the other crafts and the trophy.

_Big brother…_

It finally dawned on him that Shizuka’s voice had been calling for him for some time now, but he couldn’t see her anywhere. He wanted to get out of there now. If the submarine grew as soon as he took it out, it would’ve been too heavy for him to carry it as he looked for her. Then again, maybe he could’ve gone looking for her from inside the submarine. He could’ve navigated the apartment and not worry about the earthquakes, which had transformed from rattling his body from the inside out to outright robbing him of whatever stability he had.

But what if the submarine was on autopilot? Once he got in, it would take him somewhere safe – he was absolutely sure of it – but what about Shizuka. Would the submarine go back for her later? Should he even risk it?

“Katsuya, please wake up!”

His eyes shot open and he instinctively pushed himself upward. He ended up with half his body propped up on his elbows, struggling not to fall back. His vision was spinning wildly, the rampant noises outside their bedroom door causing his head to throb harder and harder without reprieve.

He wished he could cry.

“What’s wrong, Shizuka?” he mumbled with a strained, sleepy voice.

“I think Dad’s back home,” she whispered. “I think Mom’s all alone with ‘im right now.”

“It doesn’t matter. He won’t hurt her,” Katsuya replied, mostly believing his own answer. “If we go out, we’ll be hurt a lot more than her. Besides, Mom grounded me the last time I tried to help her agains’ Dad. I dun think she likes it when we meddle. She gets really upset and–”

“I know,” Shizuka whispered with a hoarse voice. She wanted to cry, too, he noted. And she was having a harder time than him not doing so. “But I wanna see that she’s okay.”

“Okay,” he replied.

He closed his eyes tightly, took a deep breath and willed the dizziness away as much as he could. It didn’t do much, but it gave him a momentary reprieve; enough to sit up fully. After a few seconds, he scramble off the bed and onto his feet. He stumbled towards the door, Shizuka squeezing his arm so tightly he was almost afraid she would yank it off. After a few minutes of hesitation, he tried to turn the doorknob.

It wouldn’t move.

His eyes widened. The spinning had stopped, but the throbbing continued and soon his chest started to hurt a little. “It’s locked. Why is it locked?” he tried turning the knob forcefully, unscrewed his arm from Shizuka’s grip and tried with both hands. He pulled on it, hung off of it. Shizuka placed her hands over his and tried to help turn it.

It wouldn’t move.

“Why is it locked?!” Katsuya yelled and started banging on the door with his fist. “The door’s locked! Mom! Mooooom! Why’s the door locked?!”

He heard his mother shouting from the other side. “Katsuya, go to sleep!”

“Why is it locked?!”

“Don’t wake up Shizuka!”

“Mom!” Shizuka yelled, her voice cracking as tears started to brim her eyes. “Mom, why’re we locked inside?!”

“Why the hell is the kids’ room locked?!” a furious voice bellowed. “How did you even get that key?!”

Silence.

“Mom?!” Shizuka sobbed.

“Honey, just go to sleep– Where the hell are you going?! Stay away from her!”

“Why are my kids locked in their room?!”

“Get away from that door!”

“Are you hiding my kids from me, woman?! Is that it, is that what you’re saying?!”

There was another crash, this one closer to their room. Katsuya shoved Shizuka away from the door, and almost immediately it started to rattle.

“I told you to stay away–”

“Open the goddamn door!”

“First, you’re coming back to the living room and calming down. I am not letting you near Shizuka like that!”

“If you don’t open the door, I swear I will break it down! Don’t test me!”

Katsuya grabbed Shizuka’s hand and hurried to the window. It was supposed to be locked shut, but their father had busted the lock once when he forgot his house keys and wanted in. At the time, he had given Katsuya a grim look and with a low, gravelly voice told him not to tell his mother. Katsuya scowled at him but kept his mouth shut nonetheless. Shizuka just did her best to stay clear of her father as he had stalked out of their room. They weren’t able to sleep afterwards that night.

Right now, however, he was strangely grateful he hadn’t told his mother – she would have fixed the lock.

He invoked all of his strengths to open to pull up window. It lead directly into the fire escape, which made some rickety sounds when he jumped off the window frame and landed on them. Otherwise it seemed pretty stable.

“Come on, Shizuka, we gotta hurry,” he whispered to her.

“But… where… where’a we goin’?”

He held out his arms for her. “To the park,” he answered with a hushed tone. “We can stay safe there until Dad stops being mad.”

The banging on the door would pause for screams between the two parents, followed by more banging and the serious threat of the door being knocked over. “You have five minutes to get me that key!”

“Come on, Shizuka.” Katsuya tried his best to sound as calm and collected as he could, hoping not to be given away by his shaking hands and the terror that was doubtlessly creeping up on every feature of his face.

Finally, Shizuka climbed over the window frame and reached for his arms. He helped her stand on the cold railing and gently pulled her along with him as they hurried down the flight of metal stairs. The more he breathed in the cold air, the more he felt like something chilly was cutting part of the inside of his head, but it didn’t hurt much. More than anything, it steadied his body more and more, making his skin feel warmer and sweatier.

He stopped Shizuka before she walked off the last step as there was a freezing puddle waiting at the end – one he hadn’t noticed until he had already plunged into it.

Katsuya bent down and looked over his shoulder. “Quick, get on my back. I’ll carry you there.”

She shook her head. “That’s too far.”

“You’re not wearing any shoes!”

“You’re not wearing shoes, neither!”

“It’s fine!” he insisted. “I can run fast. That makes my feet really strong. Come on, I’ll show you.”

“You won’t get hurt?”

“Nope. It won’t be too long anyways cuz we just gotta” – he paused and gestured at the light post at the end of the alleyway – “we just gotta, like, gotta follow the lights all the way there.” 

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Shizuka pressed the palms of her hands against his shoulders, then tried to find a way to hook her legs to his hips. They almost fell back but Katsuya was able to balance them at the last second until she could fix her hold on him.

He stood back up and began jogging lightly down the alleyway, bare feet scampering over the concrete as he tried to focus more on the posts and less on the deep dark that surrounded the buildings.

It took about eight minutes to reach the park, although he almost regretted it when they got there. It was darker than the streets, the ground was cold and the grass was wet and itchy. There were noises everywhere, ranging from the animals hiding in the bushes to the creak of the swings moved ever so slightly by the slow, freezing wind.

For a moment, he considered backtracking to the store they had passed along the way. He had been there several times in the past. It was only to hang out with classmates, seeing as he couldn’t actually afford to buy anything. However, sometimes he went in alone -- on the particularly annoying days when school had been tedious and he knew nothing good waited for him back home, it had been a good place to stop for a quick break. The smell of freshly baked pastries and hot chocolate, the light conversations and laughter from the customers, and the soft music that always played in the background were nice. Unfortunately, it wasn’t worth it for two kids to go in this late at night without any grown-ups to accompany them. They could get in trouble. Or worse -- they could be taken directly back home.

As soon as it became clear to him that waiting out their father’s tantrum at the park was truly the best option, he realized Shizuka had already left his side and awaited him at the swings. How she didn’t seem the least bit worried about what lurked in the dark puzzled him and he only willed himself into following her in because big brothers take care of their little sisters.

“It was wet,” Shizuka said when he approached her.

“What was wet?”

“The swing. It was like it rained, but it never rained all day long so I don’t know why it was like that.”

“That happens to the stuff that’s left outside at night.”

“How does that work?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe sometimes it rains a little and we just don’t notice it because that’s when we’re inside.”

Shizuka remained quiet. As his eyes adjusted better to the dark, he could see her tired gaze fixed firmly on her wriggling toes hanging slightly over the ground.

“Maybe I could know if I go to school,” she finally replied. “Maybe if I could go to school, then Mom would’n have to take care of me all the time and Dad would’n be mad all the time and we would’n have to hide or run when they fight cuz then they would’n fight.”

“I don’t think it’s cuz you can’t go to school,” he said. “Sometimes jerks are always jerks. It doesn’t matter what you do or what I do or what Mom does cuz none of that’s gonna fix him.” He watched her quietly for a few moments. “Who said you can’t go to school?”

She slowly began swinging. “There’s a girl in my ther’py thing and her mom said to our mom that she has as many years as I do, and-and she also said she was goin’ to school after her next birthday. But I heard Mom say my birthday is before that girl’s birthday so if she’s goin’ to school, then I should go, too. But I’m not…”

Katsuya tried to swing at the same pace as his sister. It was a little tricky to get a hang of it since he constantly kept swinging harder and faster than her. After a few tries, however, he got a hold of her rhythm and after confirming that they were moving at the same pace, he leaned his head towards her as much as he could without disrupting either of their movements. She hadn’t looked at him once while speaking; she wasn’t looking at him now, either. This was one of those times when she didn’t feel right looking at anyone. Their mom usually held her face to her to speak to her, but he could tell Shizuka didn’t like that. So he got as close as he could to make sure she could hear him clearly without having to look at him.

“That doesn’t matter.”

“It _does_ matter. That’s why kids go to school. It’s i’portant.”

“It’s only important if you’re okay, like if you’re not sick. When I get sick, I dun go to school. You’re very sick, so you can’t go to school. That’s okay.”

“But my eyes are better…” Shizuka whispered. Her swing came to an abrupt stop as she jumped back onto the ground. “I mean, not all the time, but they do better now. The doctor said they were better now than before. Can’t I try to go to school then? After my birthday?”

Katsuya stopped his swing and joined her on the ground. “You could study at home,” he replied. “I heard from my friend Miho some kids do that. Their parents are their teachers so they don’t have to go to school. Maybe Mom’s gonna teach you at home. That would be pretty cool, actually. School is really annoying.”

Shizuka gave him a mixed look of confusion and frustration. “’Cept you like school. You always come home late cuz you like staying at school more than staying at home.”

“I dun–” He looked around to make sure no adults were within earshot. “I dun actually stay at school after school is over. Sometimes… I’m not even at school when I should be at school.”

“Why?”

“Cuz school is annoying and if you don’t know a lot, teachers get mad at you all the time. And I dunno a lot. So I try to go to school almost every day, but some days, I just hang out outside with my friends. And when school is over, I dun stay at school, I go to other places before coming home.”

“I wanna do that.” Shizuka looked down. “I wanna go to a place that’s not home.”

Katsuya gently reached for Shizuka’s hand and tugged it. He started walking slowly towards a dome-shaped play area. She followed his steps, her eyes never lifting. Thankfully, the dome was close enough to the sidewalk that some of the light from a nearby post reached it. He crawled inside and she followed him and they sat against the wall of the dome, slumped into one another.

“One day, I’m gonna take you somewhere else to play,” he said. “And when your eyes aren’t sick anymore and you go to school, every time we get out, I’m gonna take you to a new place every time. And-and! And when I turn into a grown-up, I’m gonna get a big, nice house without Dad and you can come live with me. And you’ll never get sick cuz I’ll take care of you.”

Shizuka yawned and rested her head on his shoulder. She brought her knees to her chest and curled up to keep warm. Katsuya wrapped an arm around her and lied back.

“Can Mom come live with us?” Shizuka asked. Katsuya tilted his head back. He stared at the roof of the dome silently. “Big brother?”

“If she wants to,” he spoke softly, “then I guess she can.”

“You dun want her to live with us?”

“I think she doesn’t like living with me too much.”

Shizuka shifted and wrapped her arms around his torso, settling her head against the crook of his neck. “I do.”

“I know,” he squeezed her closer to her, causing her to erupt in tired little giggles. “It doesn’t matter anyways.”

———-

This time around, Katsuya was able to board the green submarine along Shizuka. He wasn’t sure how the submarine found them while he was showing her his classroom, but then again, it made sense it would know where he studied seeing as he did make the thing.

It never took them far enough. In fact, it never took them far at all. It orbited the building where their apartment is from high above. He could see his parents running up and down the same stairs they took to escape. His father screamed at the top of his lungs, rambling incoherently the entire time; his mother kept alternating between yelling at her husband to shut up and calling for Shizuka’s name.

“Do you want to tell her you’re okay?” Katsuya asked his sister as she hid away from the submarine’s windows.

“Not if she makes us go back.”

_K-tsuy-…_

He tried to ignore the overwhelming feeling of drowning that hit him in that moment.

“I… she wo-…” He gasped for air and stood on his toes to stay above the invisible water line. “She won’t!” he shouted for Shizuka to hear. “I won’t let her!”

Shizuka looked up at him from where she was curled up on the floor of the submarine. Her eyes were wide with bewilderment and she didn’t reply. He had already dropped back to his heels, but thinking she might not have heard him, he stood on his toes again and took a sufficiently big gasp of air to shout out the answer for her to hear.

Before he could, however, a hand yanked him to the ground and in a second swoop dragged him out of the park dome.

“What were you thinking?!” his mother yelled at him. “Do you know how badly your little stunt could have hurt Shizuka?! She’s your baby sister, you have to take good care of her!”

Katsuya tried to blink his grogginess away and gaped at his mother kneeling over him, accompanied by a pair of policemen, one of which was holding a very drowsy Shizuka. It was light out now, though not very bright. Just enough that he could actually see the park. The light posts would be turning off soon.

“I-I thought–!”

“No!” she said. “You _didn’t_ think. If you had thought about what you were doing, you would have stayed in your room.”

“And wait until Dad broke down the door?!” he yelled.

Her grip on his arm loosened and she stared at him exhausted.

“Ma’am, what’s this about the boy’s father?” one of the policemen asked.

“It’s” – she paused and sighed – “I-It’s just a nightmare he keeps having. We’re fine. He’s just… a very adventurous boy and I should have never left him alone with his sister.”

She helped him stand up, grabbed his hand while averting her gaze from him, and reached for Shizuka with her other hand. The policeman handed her over and Shizuka hesitantly reached back for her mother, coiling her little arms around her mother’s neck as she picked her up.

“Do you need us to escort you back home?”

“No, I can make do. Thank you so much for your help, officers.”

What followed was an agonizingly silent walk back home. Katsuya could swear they were moving even slower than when he was trudging through the dark with his sister on his back. He kept stealing glances at his mother and sister, but only Shizuka returned them. If he weren’t holding his mother’s hand, then he wouldn’t be sure she remembered he was still there.

“Mama,” Shizuka whispered halfway through the trek, “please dun be mad at Katsuya.”

She stopped. Katsuya looked up at her, but her gaze hadn’t changed. He tried to distract himself to keep the prickling sensation from getting worse and realized they were only a few steps away from the store.

“Everyone at school says they make the best honey toast ever there,” he said between subtle sniffles.

His mother turned towards the store and approached the door. For a moment, he dared be hopeful.

“I’ll make breakfast once we get home,” she said, eyes never prying away from the glass of the door.

“Why can’t we eat here?” Shizuka asked.

“You need sleep, sweetie.”

“I can’t sleep with Dad yelling,” she protested.

“He’s quiet now, dear.”

“Can’t we buy honey toast to go?”

“No.”

Shizuka wriggled impatiently in her mother’s hold. “Why not?! Is it cuz Katsuya wants to eat here?”

“It’s no–”

“Stop being mad at him!” she cried. “Please dun be mad at him no more!”

Their mother sighed. When she finally faced him, her eyes were hard and sharp. He turned away from her glare, anger seeping into every vein of his body.

“It’s fine, Shizuka,” he reassured. “It doesn’t matter.”


End file.
